Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Well, in addition to being Back to the Future Day (you know, October 21, 2015), I noticed that my count-down on my phone is telling me that it is also exactly mid-semester! We have completed 44 days of coursework and there are 44 more days to go! EDDE803 is progressing smoothly I would say, the internship in MDDE 620 is still pretty interesting, and the forums there are quite active. I get a lot of energy from seeing students in 620 participating the forums!

That said, I am feeling pretty tired! I don't know it it's just "hump-week" - you know, that week in the middle of the semester when you feel that you are climbing a steep hill and you just want to sit down, but you gotta keep moving - or just that I really need a vacation (or this damned cold that doesn't want to go... ) :-). Either way, I hope that once the current project is done that I will feel like I am on a skateboard rolling down hill to the finish line - i.e. lots of fun, and a rush, and not at all like now - feeling like I am dragging my feet.

On the docket for the next 2 weeks is Assignment 2. While it's only meant to be 4,000-5,000 words, and probably just an introduction, to a topic in teaching and learning, since Jen P. presented on gamification in 801, I didn't want to rehash her work, and information from the Gamification MOOC from 2012 (one of my 2 primary sources for my own gamification knowledge). So, I finished reading 3 books on gamification and games in education, and I am now working on both McGonigal's Reality is Broken (in audiobook format) and Sheldon's The Multiplayer Classroom (in print). I think between six books and some background info from my previous gamification knowledge bases (both MOOCs) I should be more than fine.

I was originally planning on gamifying my presentation, build in some audience engagement, maybe have my classmates do some pre-work, but I am not sure how to work the mechanics right at this moment. Once the paper is written I should have a better handle of how to gamify the presentation - if indeed I go down this path. It's hard to gauge audience reaction and reception sometimes. I get the sense that we are all tired coming into our seminar presentations, so I don't know if gamification of a presentation will delight or annoy my cohort-mates ;-)

A couple of weeks after my gamification paper and presentation, I have a presentation on connectivism as well, so I guess I will need to start reading (and re-reading) some articles I have saved on that, and some new ones that have come out since, in order to present something semi- or quasi-comprehensive. Once these two assignments are done, I think I will be in down-hill-skateboard territory.

On a side note, I signed up for EDDE 804 (registration is open for next spring) and books for that should be here by next week. I guess they'll have to be shelved for another 30 or so days until the semester ends ;-)

Well, in addition to being Back to the Future Day (you know, October 21, 2015), I noticed that my count-down on my phone is telling me that it is also exactly mid-semester! We have completed 44 days of coursework and there are 44 more days to go! EDDE803 is progressing smoothly I would say, the internship in MDDE 620 is still pretty interesting, and the forums there are quite active. I get a lot of energy from seeing students in 620 participating the forums!

That said, I am feeling pretty tired! I don't know it it's just "hump-week" - you know, that week in the middle of the semester when you feel that you are climbing a steep hill and you just want to sit down, but you gotta keep moving - or just that I really need a vacation (or this damned cold that doesn't want to go... ) :-). Either way, I hope that once the current project is done that I will feel like I am on a skateboard rolling down hill to the finish line - i.e. lots of fun, and a rush, and not at all like now - feeling like I am dragging my feet.

On the docket for the next 2 weeks is Assignment 2. While it's only meant to be 4,000-5,000 words, and probably just an introduction, to a topic in teaching and learning, since Jen P. presented on gamification in 801, I didn't want to rehash her work, and information from the Gamification MOOC from 2012 (one of my 2 primary sources for my own gamification knowledge). So, I finished reading 3 books on gamification and games in education, and I am now working on both McGonigal's Reality is Broken (in audiobook format) and Sheldon's The Multiplayer Classroom (in print). I think between six books and some background info from my previous gamification knowledge bases (both MOOCs) I should be more than fine.

I was originally planning on gamifying my presentation, build in some audience engagement, maybe have my classmates do some pre-work, but I am not sure how to work the mechanics right at this moment. Once the paper is written I should have a better handle of how to gamify the presentation - if indeed I go down this path. It's hard to gauge audience reaction and reception sometimes. I get the sense that we are all tired coming into our seminar presentations, so I don't know if gamification of a presentation will delight or annoy my cohort-mates ;-)

A couple of weeks after my gamification paper and presentation, I have a presentation on connectivism as well, so I guess I will need to start reading (and re-reading) some articles I have saved on that, and some new ones that have come out since, in order to present something semi- or quasi-comprehensive. Once these two assignments are done, I think I will be in down-hill-skateboard territory.

On a side note, I signed up for EDDE 804 (registration is open for next spring) and books for that should be here by next week. I guess they'll have to be shelved for another 30 or so days until the semester ends ;-)